Child restraints have been used for child seats in different forms and applications. Regarding a shopping cart, a child restraint may be provided for a child seat that is formed as part of the shopping cart. The child seat may have certain design criteria that the child seat may be adapted to. For example, a child seat in a shopping cart may be formed with a collapsible seat bottom and back, to permit the seat to be collapsed when not in use. The seat may also be collapsed to permit the shopping cart to nest with another shopping cart for storage or handling.
It is generally desirable to provide a child restraint for a child seat to secure the child in the seat. Securing the child in a child seat with a restraint contributes to addressing issues such as safety, retention and reduced burden for a caregiver. With respect to shopping carts, safety is a primary issue, since the child seat of a shopping cart is elevated above a typically hard and unyielding floor. Unrestrained children can fall from such seats and risk serious injury or death.
Seatbelts have been used as restraints where a child is placed in the shopping cart seat and the seatbelt is then clasped around the child. Seatbelts generally are clasped around the waist of the child to secure them using the back of the shopping cart seat for anchorage. Other shopping cart child seat restraints have been developed, including the devices illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,832,767 and 7,887,067. Some restraints have been used that are resistant to actuation by a child.
In cases where the seatbelts described above are used in an environment where they are typically subjected to high impact and compression forces, damage to the seatbelt components can result. A typical application for the above-described seatbelts is as child safety restraints on shopping carts. When shopping carts are nested together with one another for storing or handling large numbers of carts easily, for example, portions of the seatbelts can be caught between the carts and can be subjected to high impact and compressive forces. Impact forces like these tend to cause damage to seatbelt components, such as by causing the buckle to crack or even shatter. Compressive forces can damage the seatbelt components, such as by causing the buckle to deform beyond a point of elastic resilience, resulting in an unworkable buckle. In addition, the forces applied to the buckle may disrupt certain features, such as child resistance. Sometimes, a caregiver may feel challenged to secure a child in the shopping cart seat if the seatbelt is damaged or if the buckle is inoperative.